How Our iCOSHELLs Training Programme is Supporting Key Actors to Co-Design Soil Health Solutions What if the future of Europe’s climate resilience lies just inches beneath our feet? The iCOSHELLs project’s Train-the-Trainer series of workshops is empowering six soil health living labs—from Bulgaria’s vineyards to Sweden’s farmlands—to co-design soil health solutions that foster stronger communities, richer harvests, and a healthier planet. Solutions for soil health are being developed and tested in six European soil health living labs in a co-creative process with various stakeholders, in particular primary land users such as farmers. The CSCP led a three-part Train of Trainers (ToT) programme to support Living Labs to tackle multiple soil health challenges. The programme took place from January to March 2025, providing participants with tools and knowledge to drive collaborative innovation and community engagement for healthier soils. A journey of co-creation and capacity building Session one, which took place online in January and February 2025, focussed on the basic principles of the European Mission Soil and discussed the specific challenges faced by the Living Labs—from vineyards in Bulgaria to the post-mining landscapes in Greece— and how they can initiate co-creative processes on the ground. In session two, which took place online in February 2025 with the support of GAIA and ATB Potsdam, the participants analysed the success factors for Living Labs and discussed KPIs for monitoring progress. In addition, the operational structure for living labs and a multi-level approach to data collection were presented. The focus was on coordination, stakeholder involvement and monitoring. Session three, which took place in March 2025, moved from theory to practice as participants developed their own co-creation plans. They also discussed typical challenges of co-creation in break-out groups. In addition, RISE researchers presented methods for promoting soil literacy in co-creation sessions. An additional workshop for the Italian living lab was held in the city of Trento, enabling site managers to adapt their approaches to the heterogeneous local contexts in the Italian lab, jointly develop site-specific schedules, and refine the monitoring tools. Tools and resources for co-creation in the Living Labs A new report brings together resources to support living lab actors on multiple aspects related to their co-creation processes, including: Co-creation templates: structured guides to facilitate the planning and implementation of co-creation meetings. Interactive facilitation methods: techniques such as World Café and action planning discussions to encourage engaged stakeholder participation. Ground skills modules: Educational resources to promote co-creative soil literacy Monitoring and evaluation: Tools to measure impact and track progress against defined KPIs You can download the report Living Lab Governance Framework and Train-the-Trainer Sessions here. The report is based on a baseline analysis of the soil health landscape in each Living Lab. Please take a look at the report Stakeholder Mapping and Baseline Analysis of Local Ecosystems here. Increasing impact The iCOSHELLs soil health living labs are currently at the start of their co-creation activities aimed at developing innovative solutions for better soil health. A total of eight co-creation sessions are planned in each living lab to ensure the involvement of end users and the collaboration of different stakeholders. Throughout the duration of the project, the living labs will be methodically accompanied by the CSCP to support their activities and ensure the success of the co-creation approaches. For further questions, please contact Dr. Britta Holzberg.